A one handed clap best describes the reaction to the 43,000 signature drop off by anti-salmon setnet advocates at the Division of Elections last week.
It means enough signatures were gathered to include the question on the 2016 primary election ballot, and let Alaska voters decide whether to ban setnets at Cook Inlet, Mat-Su, Anchorage, Juneau, Valdez, Ketchikan, and any communities designated as "urban" and "non-subsistence" in the future.
The ban is being pushed one-handed by the Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance, whose board of directors delivered stacks of signature booklets, followed by a press conference rife with talking points, table pounding, bravado and buzzwords.
"I believe now more than ever that Alaskans want to end the devastating and outdated mode of commercial fishing called setnetting," exhorted Jim Connors, AFCA president, and a Kenai lodge owner and sport fishing guide. "I spent six years as a setnetter in Upper Cook Inlet and during that time I caught a lot of red salmon. However, my nets also caught sharks, birds, ducks, flounders, dolly vardens and a lot of king salmon. Setnets are decimating other species in Alaska."
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